Chapter 408: Tricking the Iranians

"However, we can export T-62 tanks to you." Andre said, "Our tank has been widely used in the army and has been proven to be an excellent main battle tank. The 115mm tank gun can penetrate the main armor of most Western tanks. If you need it, we can also give you our specially developed new armor-piercing shells, which can penetrate the main armor of American tanks. If you need it, we can deliver it within a week, and the unit price can be very low, for example, 800,000 US dollars per tank. What do you think?"

The T-62, in the Soviet armored forces' equipment sequence, is almost the same as the T-72, a product of a sudden change.

The first main battle tank in the Soviet armored series was the T-55, and the new epoch-making tank was Project 432 of the "Kharkov Plan", which was the prototype of the T-64 tank. General A-Vladus-Zinkovich, the chairman of the Tank Science and Technology Committee at the time, did his best to delay the review and approval of the technical structure documents for the mass production of the T-62 tank, so that the T-64 tank would be given priority in development and production.

As a result, an M60A1 tank equipped with a 105mm rifled gun defected from Iran. Soviet tank technical experts immediately conducted a thorough dissection and analysis of this new tank developed by the United States, confirming that the performance of these tanks is stronger than that of their own T-55. For example, the 100mm tank shells of the T-55 tanks cannot effectively penetrate the front armor of the M60A1 tank. The armor-piercing power of the Western L7 105mm rifled gun is also much greater than that of the Soviet 100mm tank gun, and can easily penetrate two T-55s side by side!

As a result, Marshal Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, then Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Soviet Union, was furious. He scolded Marshal of Armored Tanks Pavel Pavlovich Poluboyarov and hoped to immediately put new tanks into production to deal with the West. In the face of the rebuke, Poluboyarov still wanted to delay. He replied: "The tank equipped with a 115mm gun being developed by the Nizhny Tagil Tank Plant can fight against the US M60 tank. However, the tank still has some defects, such as the weapon stabilizer is prone to malfunction." Chuikov shouted: "Don't use any stabilizer to deceive me? I need equipment for wedge offensive! This kind of gun must be installed on the tank immediately!"

In this way, the Ural Locomotive and Rolling Stock Plant in Nizhny Tagil, which was originally like a stepmother's child, began to produce T-62 tanks. After all, it was modified on the basis of T-55. The progress was smooth. In 1961, the first batch of 25 tanks produced were equipped with the tank units of the Soviet Carpathian Military District.

The T-62 was originally a replacement for the T-64 before it entered service. Unfortunately, the T-64 was not up to standard and had been difficult to produce. Various problems plagued them, which gave the T-62 a chance. This tank was supposed to be a flash in the pan, but in the end, a total of 20,000 were produced! It ranked second in the number of tanks produced after the war. In addition to being equipped in large quantities by the Soviet army, it was also used for export to other countries.

During the battle of Zhenbao Island, China obtained a T-62 tank and, after repeated surveying and mapping, produced a similar 69 tank.

Now, Iran is importing a large number of Type 69 tanks from China through secret channels. In the 1980s, China was in a period of economic transformation and its military expenditure was very small. Among the military-industrial enterprises, it relied on exporting large quantities of weapons to Iran to overcome this difficulty and make a fortune.

Now, since Andrei has traveled through time and space and become a Soviet citizen, he naturally has to serve the interests of the Soviet Union and rely on the T-62 to suppress the export space of China's Type 69 tank. The 800,000 just mentioned is not Andrei's nonsense, but the same price as China's Type 69 tank!

The price is the same, but the performance of the 115mm tank gun is far better than the 100mm smoothbore gun of China's Type 69 tank, and the fire control system is also comprehensively superior to China's tanks. The only disadvantage is that these tanks are not produced by their own military factories, but are refurbished retired tanks.

After the T-72 went into production, the T-62 was discontinued. At the same time, the troops were gradually replacing their equipment. Why not make a lot of money from the Iranians by using the obsolete T-62?

Now, it depends on whether the Iranians will fall into the trap. The T-62 is widely circulated around the world. Even if there are T-62s in the Iranian army, it does not mean that they were sold to them by the Soviet Union. North Korea, which has a good relationship with Iran, has a T-62 production line.

"Okay, we can import them, 500 in advance. We hope you can deliver the goods as soon as possible." Andre was very surprised by Muhsin's speed. If he had known earlier, he would have asked for one million US dollars for each car!

Of course, there is no need to think too much about this deal. The Soviet Union's main battle weapons have always been good. Although the performance of the T-62 is not as good as the T-72 and T-64, it is already the best choice we can get, and the price is not expensive!

We continue to arm our troops with a large number of tanks! China's 69 is obviously not as good as the Soviet T-62. There is nothing to hesitate about. The main thing is the speed of delivery!

"We also need to order the rest of the weapons, including multiple rocket launchers and so on," said Mohsen. "We have a detailed list here."

It was already prepared! The planes and tanks at the front of the detailed list were ticked off by Muhsin, and the other weapons at the back, including a huge number of automatic rifles, etc., all needed to be imported from the Soviet Union!

Iran has a complete industrial system, but these industries are unable to restore their production capacity under the heavy bombing of the United States. Factories like Isfahan were destroyed in the first place, so they continued to develop new weapons.

"We can provide these anti-aircraft guns and other equipment, and we need to discuss the rest later." Andre said, everything else is fine, but those automatic rifles and other equipment must not be provided to Iran in large quantities! If every Iranian has an AK47, then even if we occupy eastern Iran in the future, I'm afraid there will be no peace!

Now the Soviet Union's aid is limited to helping Iran deal with the United States, and the focus is on fighter jets! The Soviet Union will not only not provide the kind of light weapons that can be proliferated in large quantities, but will also restrict third countries from providing them in large quantities!

The negotiation went very smoothly and both parties returned satisfied. Andrei took the contract and knew that he could make another profit from the Iranians. Moreover, before leaving, Andrei gave the Iranians a new proposal. When Andrei finished speaking, the Iranians' eyes were filled with enthusiasm!